Despite the intervention of African, American and British mediators, the prospects for peace in Darfur, in Sudan, are in the balance. The government of Sudan said on Friday May 5th it would accept a peace deal, as did one rebel faction. But two other rebel groups refused0

The death in a helicopter crash of John Garang, Sudan’s southern rebel leader turned vice-president, has sparked unrest in the capital, Khartoum, and put the country’s recently negotiated peace accord under strain0

Human-rights groups have hailed as “historic” the UN Security Council’s resolution to refer 51 people suspected of war crimes in Sudan’s Darfur region to the International Criminal Court. But without a larger and more robust foreign intervention in Darfur, the murders and other abuses are unlikely to end soon0